Cable Building

Could someone please recommend some good wire for a raw turntable signal to phono pre input? Both ends will use KLEI Pure Harmony connectors and the RCAs will be Perfect Harmony jacks. ~2m length for each. Just not sure what to use for wire.

Edit: I did find some Connex shielded solid core 23awg silver wire that I can make two 1m interconnects with for less than $50... not bad. still interested in hearing opinions on what makes a good phono cable!

 

With those connectors, at that length, I would probably use Belden 1800F. If you prefer Mogami, then W2791 would also be a good choice. Personally, I might consider trying to move the phono pre closer to the 'table to minimize the length of the run (and reduce overall capacitance). Some guys on the board have also spoken highly of Gotham, so a nice shielded twisted pair option from them could also be a good choice for your application.

 

If you're talking about this stuff:

https://www.partsconnexion.com/CONNEX-66070.html

I just started playing with it, so far (less than 50 hours on some XLRs from dac to pre-amp and pre-amp to amp, it's pretty saucy. I'm withholding judgement until 100hrs, based on other forum "reviews" and (mostly) so some asshole can inform me they take 400 hours to break in. So far, nothing egregious, but better space, air, and attack, and less "sheen" at higher volume on my speaker system. Bass is a little bloated. Coming from Gotham GAC-4 Pro.

Be warned, the insulation on the +tive and -tive is kind of a PITA to strip.

 

I assume saucy is.... positive then?

edit: I should have also mentioned that I wanted to do this in silver wire, with silver connectors and such. I am also building an Eros 2 and doing the whole input stage in 5N silver. Typically I prefer copper but if there's any signal path that could benefit from silver's enhanced conductivity, it's the raw signal from a cartridge.

 

That quote is for the samples they have in stock. I only wanted a couple of sets for myself and thought some others might want some if what they had on hand were cheaper (which they're not). I guess the eBay seller must have gotten some in much larger quantities.

Ironically, the ones from Japan have already arrived and I'm still waiting on Trevor to ship my wire ...

 

Yeah, good so far. Better than the last silver DIY ICs (VH Audio recipe with Eichmann silver RCAs) I put together years ago that I still have around. Those are still too "glare-ey" in my system. YMMV, as always.

 

So I just spent the last few days working on a pair of umbilical cables for an ongoing build. Since this is for a high voltage project, 600V/105oC wires were chosen, 18awg each. I opt for PVC insulation for the softness and flexibility, never liked the teflon one. Each cable has 14 cores, carrying lots of high voltage and AC heaters. Each conductor was pre-cut to exact length before soldering to boards. The power supply and amplifier were designed to be dual mono so they requires 2 cables!

This is such a tedious work, and I must say I much prefer building amps than working on these crazy cables... :-/

 

New here. Hopefully this is welcome since I finally figured out how to post images. Here are a few adapters I made recently. Not the prettiest work, but they are functional. All done using Cardas quad-eutectic silver solder
First Pic Top to bottom:
1. TRRS balanced 3.5mm to dual XLR with shield grounding 3.5mm Using canare for use with various Geek out stuff as dacs. (Design came actually from a thread in SBAF) Custom made that barrel on the 3.5mm. Very proud of it as it started life as a dollar store laser pointer. First I gutted it and cut the housing in half, then I drilled out the brass end and milled it to be a flush snap together fit with the Internals of a 3.5mm trrs. Finally I stripped the paint and polished the brass and aluminum to the shine you see. *see pics 2-4.

2,3. Canare starquad wire adapters. Generic 3.5mms, neutrik 4pin and one eidolic to make it fit deeply recessed sockets a vmoda

4,5. adapters using Silver dragon v1 wiring (4pin xlr to 3.5mm generic trrs and amphenol trs

6. Finally my favorite adapter made using the guts from a 1/4” Furutech FP-704, the female 4pin xlr guts from a NC4FXX with silver pins, and the trimmed housing from a Neutrik NC4FX-B due to it being more compact. Painstakingly wired with less than 1” of silver dragon cable for as close to direct contact as possible. The whole intent was to make as perfect an adapter as possible that didn’t leverage on the 1/4 jack too hard. However, after all that work someone pointed out it looks identical to an adapter plussounds sells for $75... haha oh well.

 

I'm curious what you're using for sleeving on those cables? It looks like paracord but much larger diameter. I'd love to find something similar that would fit over the 7.5mm diameter Mogmai 2549.

It may be a pain to make, but it looks really good!

 

Sorry, I can’t reveal my trade secret...

It’s the nylon multifilament sleeve. It’s very soft, flexible and expandable sleeve. My favorite one for more than 12 years building cables.

For the Mogami, the 1/4” diameter one would tightly fit and look really nice. Search for Techflex nylon sleeve on eBay.

 

I got mine from WireCare: [edited: see link below]
All sizes available in convenient cut lengths. Very prompt shipping too.

 

Actually yours is the monofilament sleeve which is not cloth-like. It's not soft and really flexible. The multifilament one is also great for headphones cables.

 

I did a quick comparison between 5 different thin wires for DIY cables I'm going to build in the future. Since it's a bit lengthy I thought it's better to put it in a spoiler. Maybe some of you will find it interesting.

Spoiler: 5 way wire comparison

One of the things that I've tried to keep secret for as long as possible is that my HD800 still had its stock cable for as long as I've had it all the way back in 2013. While I knew very well exactly how shitty it sounds and that even the HD600 cable would be an improvement, I never knew which wires to chose for building a new one, etc. Well, it's finally starting to break so I don't have any excuses anymore for not building a new cable.
I chose to buy 5 'audiophile' style 'purist' wires to test. I ended up testing them on my speakers by extending the wires to the widebanders and the woofers, which worked much better in being able to evaluate the sonic losses from each cable than I expected. The differences were so easily audible that the hard part was picking a cable, not concentrating on the differences. I didn't burn in any of the cables and might post update in the future.

The wires I bought are:

• Jupiter 26AWG copper in ultrathin cotton with cryo treatment
• Jupiter 28AWG silver in silk
• Duelund DCA20GA, 26 strands of tinned copper in silk&oil
• Duelund 0.4mm silver in silk&oil
• Mundorf SGW105, 0.5mm bare silver-gold wire

Here's a short description how I thought each wire sounded versus not having the wire connected:

• Jupiter 26AWG copper
  • smooth, warm tonality
  • It does lack explosiveness and despite the smoothness it can have some grain
  • staging is noticeably smaller than normal, but the imaging is still very precise
  • Compared to the DCA20GA there's some grittiness (or grain). Hard to find precisely the right word. Doesn't sound the cleanest somehow.
  • The tone is also not as nice, not as liquid as the DCA20GA
  • Timbre is somewhat off, especially in the upper bass region
  • It's somewhat brighter and seems to resolve better than the DCA20GA
  • Differentiating tones and timbres is harder than not having the cable, plankton is lost.
  • Bass impact may be a bit better defined than on the DCA20GA

• Duelund DCA20GA
  • Its strength is that liquid tone, warm, smooth
  • Nice tone and timbre
  • The treble has some slight tizziness, but it's incredibly well controlled. Most of the time that just sounds like it has more extension. But it does sound less natural than it could.
    
  • It's a spacious sounding wire, but at the expense of imaging precision.
  • It can sound hazy or slow at times
  • It's definitely lacking in resolution compared to not having the wire
  • Bass is also a bit less defined, sounds compressed in its tonality: lacks depth
  • The bass does sound more liquid than the Jupiter copper which some may prefer. Jupiter copper sounds rougher, dirtier.
  • Bass delineation is still good, it's not a blurry mess, mostly just softer. Seems to keep as much resolution as the Jupiter copper wire, but it presents information differently
  • It lacks some background blackness
  • Lower midrange may be recessed; can be a bit hollow sounding at times
  • Timbre is more limited vs the silver wires, but it has a nice earthy tone like the silver Duelund wire. Reminds me of the Jantzen wax copper foil coils I have in that way.

• Duelund 0.4mm silver wire in silk/oil
  • The tone is just slightly warm, can be a bit too smooth sounding. Slightly brighter than the two copper wires though - definitely closer to neutral. Especially the top octave is somewhat rolled off compared to neutral.
  • The staging is very good, every so slightly smaller than not having the wire and imaging is pretty much exactly as before
  • It has a hyper focused quality to it that's hard to explain, but I like it.
  • Very resolving, just that it sometimes sounds too smooth.
  • Lower midrange and bass is more earthy, warmer than the Jupiter silver, which can make it sound a tiny bit smeared at times, but the timbre is more realistic
  • Thuds, bassdrums, etc are not as forceful as they should be. Impact is slightly lacking.
  • Timbre and tone might be the most realistic of the 5 wires I tried.
  • Still sounds very transparent, preserves almost all of the plankton.

• Jupiter 0.32mm silver wire in silk
  • Sounds brighter than the Duelund silver. Also less damped, for better or for worse. Somewhere in between would be best. Upper treble is definitely more pronounced.
  • With the elevation there's also some very slight sheen at the top end. Doesn't really bother me, but I others might be bothered.
  • Staging is larger than the Duelund, but the imaging is also a bit less precise. Still much better than the copper wires.
  • It's possible it's a tiny bit more resolving than the Duelund silver.
  • Bass is a bit less impactful than the copper wires, but notes are easier to tell apart
  • I feel the timbre is more realistic in the lower midrange versus the copper wires. Tone is similar to copper in the midrange and bass, but the timbre is nicer. Has a smoother quality to it vs the copper Jupiter.
  • It does still kick when called for. Very defined, very good extension.
  • It can sound a bit hollow compared to the Duelund silver, but it also seems faster

• Mundorf SGW 105
  • Right off the bat, it has a different presentation compared to the other silver wires.
  • It's a bit brighter than the Jupiter silver, but it also has a more liquid presentation. Treble seems more natural.
  • Bass is also somewhat leaner than the Duelund, but the subbass extension and impact seems to be the best.
  • The resolution is easily on par with the other silver wires. I think it's a tiny bit better, actually.
  • In the same vein the stage and imaging just feel natural, as if it doesn't change it at all. Imaging is the best.
  • The bass has a weird flow to it, while retaining all the information. It may be slightly lean overall, but it feels like the timbre is somewhat syrupy - if that makes any sense.
  • Sometimes I was unsure about the timbre. I felt that the Jupiter silver might have a more realistic timbre, but the Mundorf seemed to flesh out tones more than the Jupiter.
  • Has more subbass than the Jupiter silver
  • Overall I thought this one had a very polished, resolving and direct sound with incredible imaging.

Overall the three silver wires clearly overshadowed the copper wires for me. The Duelund silver and Mundorf SGW are my favorites so far. The Jupiter silver is a bit overshadowed by the Mundorf SGW for me so far, because the Mundorf seems to sound similar to the Jupiter tonally, but with slightly better technicalities and a more liquid presentation. Still, I haven't tried it with an insulation yet, which makes it somewhat unfair.
To put things into context, I think I will go for the Duelund silver as my HD800 cable and the Mundorf SGW105 for my widebanders. Not sure about my woofer cables yet, since those need a larger diameter. I was thinking copper foil like PAP sells, but after hearing how much worse the copper sounded vs the silver even in the bass I'm not so sure anymore.

I also tried a regular PVC insulated copper wire (1.5mm²) and also household aluminium foil (lol), which were both much worse than these wires. I think all 5 of these are very good wires, as they should be at their respective prices.

 

Oops, copy/pasted the wrong link.
https://www.wirecare.com/category/shielding/acoustic-shielding/nylon-multifilament

 

That's a solid core 26 AWG wire, right. Wouldn't that makes for a very stiff cable? What construction are you planning to use (like number of strands, etc.) Ergonomics is as important for me as sonic properties, but that's just me.

 

So I finally ordered some cable parts to make one for my Borealis and I'm having trouble figuring out how to solder the Audeze/ZMF style 4pin mini XLR connectors. If I only have 2 wires for Left and Right but each connector has 4 pins to solder?

I was browsing online and found a guide where the guy combines pins 1+4 (signal) and 2+3 (ground) like this picture. Do I just solder each of the two wires on any of the two options available for signal and ground?

 

Yup, 26AWG. That's still quite thin overall. I fear stiffness less than the silver breaking. I was thinking a simple construction of 1 strand of the 26AWG wires per connection, so 4 total. Mainly to meet a price point that I had set for myself, not because I think that would somehow be better. Since the wires are quite thin (and I want some extra protection to hopefully prevent them from breaking) I'm planning to use some thick walled sleeving around each of the wires, but I haven't yet found what I want. After that I thought I'd just twist them.

I feel this might just become an expensive lesson to not use solid core wires for headphone cables, as they will eventually break, but I've been bending and twisting the wire a bit and it seems to hold up fine, so far.

 

Correct, just run L+ to L jumpered pins 1&4, L- to L jumpered pins 2&3, and vice versa for R channel. I did exactly the same thing on some mini-XLR just a couple weeks ago, except to 4-pin XLR instead of TRS. Everything came out fine.

 

Finally finished building my first cable! What a journey lol

I wasn't planning on braiding the cable, but I realized the paracord I got wasn't large enough to fit all 4 wires. So I just said f**k it and went all in. The sleeving was challenging at first but once I got the hang of it, I just went on autopilot while listening to music. The biggest challenge for me was soldering that small ass 4-pin mini XLR connectors...oh my god LOL that really tested my patience... I gave up last night and decide to give it another go this morning and after many failed attempts, I managed to get it working. Now I don't have to use that trash cable that comes with the Borealis

 

Nice, but it's a bit hard to fully appreciate your efforts with that (fake?) fur background